Foot cover



A ril 28, 1942. 0. B. KUERSCHNER 2,281,150

' FOOT COVER Filed April 20, 1940 Patented Apr. 28, 1942 UNITED STATESPATENT OFFICE 2,281,160 FOOT COVER Otto B. Kuerschner, Wilmington, Del.Application April 20, 1940, Serial No. 330,737

3 Claims.

This invention relates to a protector in the form of a foot covering tobe worn on ones foot after medication has been applied to the same, forexample, when salves, powders, or liquids, must be applied in contactwith the skin of the foot in treating any disease such as athletes foot,eczema, etc.

A foot covering for this P pose must be of very light weight, as it isusually worn inside of a sock or stocking. When it is worn inside of astocking or sock in this way, it is diflicult to provide means forkeeping the heel of the foot cover in its proper position, as it isfound in practice, that the movements of the foot in walking, will causethe heel portion of such a foot cover to be pulled down.

An object of the present invention is to provide a foot cover orprotector, having means for overcoming this difficulty, and which willoperate when the foot cover is worn, to engage the wearers heel in sucha way as to prevent the heel portion of the protector from workingdownwardly and oil of the wearers heel.

A further object of the invention is to construct means for thispurpose, of material such as fabric, which can be readily sterilizedwith the body of the protector when necessary.

Further objects of the invention will appear hereinafter.

The invention consists in the novel parts and combination of parts to bedescribed hereinafter, all of which contribute to produce an efilcientfoot cover.

A preferred embodiment of the invention is described in the followingspecification, while the scope of the invention is pointed out in theappended claims.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a protector or foot cover embodying myinvention.

Fig. 2 is a vertical section taken about on the line 22 of Fig. 1, andshowing the fabric heel of the protector as though held against a flatsurface.

Fig. 3 is a plan of the heel portion of the protector broken away, andfurther illustrating the means I employ for accomplishing the purpose ofthe invention.

Fig. 4 is a vertical section taken about on the line 4-4 of Fig. 3, butupon an enlarged scale indicating the outline of the wearers heel, andindicating how the invention operates in practice to accomplish itsresult.

In practicing the invention. I provide a body I of fabric, which hassubstantially the form of the lower end of a stocking and which isadapted to be slipped over ones foot. The fabric employed for thispurpose is knitted fabric, such as employed in forming hose. It istherefore of a flimsy nature, and when the protector is worn, there is atendency for the heel portion 2 of the protector to be pulled downwardlyoff of the heel in walking. This is due to the flexing of the toes andthe movements of the foot. The edge of the opening into the protector isprovided with an elastic cord 3, which exerts some slight tension in theupper edge, and this cooperates with my improvement in preventing theheel portion 2 from working downwardly. The tension in the upper edge ofthis protector, however, is necessarily quite slight, or the tensionwould render the protector uncomfortable, and for this reason thistension alone exerted at the upper edge of the heel portion 2, does notprevent the heel portion 2 from working downwardly. In order to overcomethis difiiculty, I provide a guard 4 of flexible non-elastic material,having sufficient body so that it will not stretch appreciably and thisguard is located adjacent the upper edge of the heel portion and securedthereto. This guard may have any desired form, but should be soconstructed that it will present a relatively taut edge against the sideof the wearers heel.

The guard 4 is preferably formed of a material that has little or noelasticity, and for this purpose I prefer to employ a double gusset,that is to say, a substantially triangular body having two wings orextensions 4a and 41) located on opposite sides of the medial plane andcentral whip seam line 5 of the protector. In other words, this gussetpreferably is composed of two substantially triangular wings orextensions integral with each other and attached at the upper edge 6 ofthe heel and downwardly along the seam line 5 down to the point I, wherethe two inclined or diagonal edges 8 of the gusset wings 4a and 4bintersect. The diagonal edges 8 are thus unsecured to the body portion Iexcept at the extreme ends of said edges.

When the protector is being worn, the tension in the elastic cord 3assists in developing a certain amount of tension in the gusset wings 4aand 4b so that the edges 8 become more or less taut, so that these edgesassume substantially the relation of chords across the curve of thesides 9 of the heel (see Fig 3). This is illustrated in Fig. 4, whichindicates how the lower edges 8 will be pulled against the side ll) ofthe wearers heel II, and are held in such a position that they wouldresist any movement tending to pull them down over the lower portion ofthe wearer's heel that enlarges at this point.

This article is useful to be worn over a person's foot to whichmedication has been applied, so as to keep the medication from coming incontact with, or soiling, a sock or stocking worn outside of theprotector.

Although it is desirable to employ the elastic cord 3 to cooperate withthe guard 4 as described above; of course, if the material of which theprotector is made, has some inherent elasticity, the taut eifect at theedges 8 may be developed sufllciently to enable the heel portion 2 tostay in place.

In using the protector, it will be evident that it can readily beslipped onto the foot after medication. It then acts as a covering overthe medicated points, preventing any salve or ointment used from beingwiped off, as it might otherwise be, in drawing a sock or stocking overthe bare foot.

What I claim is:

1. A protector for medication applied to ones foot, consisting of aflimsy fabric body to be slipped onto the foot and having a flimsy heelportion with a heel guard of flexible non-' elastic material attached tothe fabric heel on its inner side substantially along the verticalmedial plane thereof, and extending downwardly from the upper edge ofthe fabric heel, said guard being in the form of a substantiallytriangular gusset presenting bottom edges extending laterally andsecured to the fabric heel only at points laterally removed from themedial plane, said gusset operating when the protector is worn, tobecome taut and engage the side of 'the wearer's heel to maintain thefabric heel in position and prevent the same from being pulled down bythe movements of the foot in walking. 7 2. A protector for medicationapplied to ones foot, consisting of a flimsy fabric body with an upperopening enabling the same to be slipped onto the foot and having aflimsy heel portion with a substantially triangular heel guard offlexible non-elastic material attached to the fabric heel on its innerside substantially along the vertical medial plane thereof, andextending downwardly from the upper edge of the fabric heel, means fordeveloping tension along the upper edge of the heel adjacent the guard,said guard also extending laterally in each direction from the medialplane and its lower edge being secured to the fabric heel only at pointslaterally removed from the said medial plane, said heel guard operatingto resist stretching when the protector is worn, so as to present arelatively taut lower edge to engage the side of the wearer's heel tomaintain the fabric heel in position and prevent the same from beingpulled down by the movements of the foot in walking.

3. A protector for medication applied to ones foot, consisting ofaflimsy fabric body to he slipped onto the foot and having a flimsy heelportion with a heel guard of flexible non-elastic material attached tothe fabric heel on its inner side substantially along the verticalmedial plane thereof and extending downwardly from the upper edge ofthefabric heel, said guard being in the form of a substantiallytriangular gusset presenting lower edges upwardly inclined from saidmedial plane, said edges being disposed only slightly below the edge ofthe fabric heel and secured to the fabric heel only at points laterallyremoved from the medial plane, said edges operating when the protectoris worn to become taut and engage the upper sides of the wearer's heelto maintain the fabric heel in position and prevent the same frombeingpulled down by the movements of the foot in walking.

O'I'IO B. KUERSCHNER.

